Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Indian Ocean Anxiety

Is the Gulf War now stretching its shadow into the Indian Ocean? That question is no longer rhetorical. It is strategic — and it matters deeply to New Delhi. The reported sinking of IRIS Dena by a US submarine nearly 370 nautical miles off the edge of Sri Lanka’s international waters has triggered more than…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

India’s Calm in a Burning World

As West Asia teeters on the brink, the world once again flirts with the unthinkable — a wider war that could spiral into a global confrontation. The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, in an alleged US–Israel strike has shaken the region’s fragile balance. Tehran is in flux. Its chain of command appears unsettled….

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Sonia’s Reckless Rhetoric

When Sonia Gandhi demands that Parliament be convened to condemn the alleged killing of Ali Khamenei in a purported US–Israel missile strike, she is not exhibiting moral courage — she is indulging in diplomatic recklessness. At a time when West Asia is volatile, oil markets are jittery, and millions of Indians live and work in…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Oil, War, and the World

Two days. That’s all it took for global crude prices to spike and financial markets to wobble. The latest flare-up between Israel and Iran has once again reminded the world of a brutal economic truth: when the Middle East burns, the global economy pays. Oil is the bloodstream of modern commerce, and the Middle East…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Precision vs Provocation: India’s Moral Stand

When India condemned Pakistan’s recent air strikes inside Afghanistan that reportedly killed 26 Pashtun civilians, it was not engaging in diplomatic grandstanding. It was stating a simple principle: counterterrorism cannot become a pretext for civilian slaughter. Pakistan claims its air force targeted terror hideouts across the Afghan border. If that were indeed the case, a…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Conspiracy or Convenient Politics?

When Rohit Pawar, grandson of Sharad Pawar and son of former Maharashtra leader Ajit Pawar, hints that his father’s air crash was not an accident but a conspiracy allegedly involving the Telugu Desam Party and Union Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, he is not merely raising suspicion—he is detonating a political firecracker without a fuse….

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